School is back in session and so its time for a little show and tell. I found this petrified Alien on the Outer Banks while walking the beach at low tide early one morning in late June. My Alien friend is a well worn fulgurite; a rock made when lightning energizes the beach sand.
Well there are four hatchlings and this one is the hungry one!
My shadow overlooking the new herb garden. We finally had some success germinating chili tepin, so the two left rows are peppers and the rows on the right are a variety of herbs. Fresh herbs just outside the back door! Now that’s good eats.
I finally decided to take a chance and get close enough to get a decent photograph. I’m not quite ready for the macro! This colony has made this brick fence post pillar its home for the past two years now. The bees haven’t stung anyone or swarmed so I don’t think they are Africanized. I’m inclined to leave them alone. They are doing a good job pollinating the garden plants! I’m glad to have them back.
create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands
Check this out and make your own!
I don’t know why they are raising a brood in July, but the Waterthrush are back. They have built a nest on the back porch again, this time just to the right of the doors in an abandoned planter attached to the wall. It looks like there are four eggs.
This spring we planted two burr oaks just off the back porch to replace the old post oak that we lost. We coverted the ground around the new trees with a thick layer of shredded tree mulch to help them weather hot days of the summer. To my astonishment, a wild rabbit decided that the mulch under the tree was the perfect place to raise her brood. We’ve been watching the den for two weeks and this is the first time one of the little ones has poked his head out.
Sometimes it’s as good as the brochure 
There was a time while I was racing bicyles that the fig bar was my favorite food. These figs are from a tree in the back corner of my yard and every year I’m surprised by how well it does here in Texas.
Kids are gone, place is a little run down, but it’s home. See the Happy Family in the spring of their lives when the Cardoon was in bloom.
Two princesses climb the royal empress tree.
The Cotinus texan prefer the overripe figs leaving the others alone. Reminds me of my neighbor defending his tomatoes from the squirrels. The squirrels would pick the green tomatoes, take one bite and leave the fruit lying on the ground. " How come the squirrels don’t eat your tomatoes?", he asked. I pointed to the compost pile in the middle of a circle of tomato plants. "Simple. We give them something better to eat". So it turns out to be a good idea to leave a few very ripe figs on the tree for the beetles so they don’t have to sample all of them!
There is enough for everyone.
Every year the whole town musters for the 4th of July Parade. Every manner of vehicle lines up on Simmons Drive at 9 am and begins winding throught the town at a slow pace ending at the Town Hall for a BBQ. Its quite a bit of fun whether you watch or parade. I love living in a small town !
Stunning sunrise yesterday. I took this from my Razor driving down highway 121 in the yellow stang on the way to Cadbury’s while you were still sleeping
We lost another White Oak this Spring to Hypoxylon canker. The sawdust in the foreground is the ground up stump. The bare patch of grass is where the kid’s swing used to hang. Surprisingly, the limb the swing hung from was the last part of the tree to succumb to disease. The arborist that felled the tree tied the swing to a sturdy limb in a nearby tree. I guess everyone remembers their favorite childhood swing. When the tree you are swinging from falls, its time to find a new tree.
I’ve seen some fast dogs, but nothing like this greyhound. It must be part cat. Light, graceful and blazingly fast. Matt took this photo and it turned out pretty cool. The dog’s name is Sadie and she’s from a foster family that rescue’s pure bred Italian greyhounds from pounds.
The change of seasons in Texas sometimes last only days, or so it seems. In the last few weeks we’ve had record high temperatures, overnight freezes and nine inches of rain. The return of the mallards is a sure sign that spring is near. I’m hoping for some ducklings this year. We’ll see …
